.A video card, video adapter,
graphics-accelerator card, display
adapter or graphics card is an expansion card
whose function is to generate and output images to a display.^This refers to the ways that the graphics card output images to the monitor.

.Many
video cards offer added functions, such as accelerated rendering of
3D
scenes and 2D graphics, video capture,
TV-tuner adapter, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 decoding, FireWire, light pen,
TV output, or the ability to connect multiple monitors (multi-monitor),
while other modern high performance cards are used for more
graphically demanding purposes such as PC games.^Video cards with a TV input connection are able of displaying a television's video on a computer.

.Video hardware can be integrated on the motherboard, as it often
happened with early computers; in this configuration it was
sometimes referred to as a video controller or
graphics controller.^Video Cards can also be called Computer Graphics Cards.

.The first IBM PC video card, which was released with the first
IBM
PC, was developed by IBM in
1981. The MDA (Monochrome
Display Adapter) could only work in text mode representing 80
columns and 25 lines (80x25) in the screen.^MDA is the first text-only video display standard from IBM capable of displaying at a maximum of 80x25 characters in two colors.

.It had a 4KB video
memory and just one color.^It components consisted of only one color, 80x25 text-only display and a memory of 4KB. Within the next 6 years several improvements were made with video cards.

.VGA was widely accepted, which led
some corporations such as ATI, Cirrus Logic and S3 to work with that video card, improving
its resolution and the number of colours it used.^ATi Graphic/video Cards .

.In 1997, 3dfx released the Voodoo
graphics chip, which was more powerful compared to other consumer
graphics cards, introducing 3D effects such as mip mapping, Z-buffering and anti-aliasing into the consumer market.^Review of the first 3DFX Voodoo 1 3D card for the Mac .

.From 2002 onwards, the video card market came to be dominated
almost entirely by the competition between ATI and Nvidia, with their Radeon and Geforce lines respectively, taking around
90% of the independent graphics card market between them, while
other manufacturers were forced into much smaller, niche
markets.^Added the ATI Radeon X1950 XT graphics card.

Graphics processing unit
(GPU)

.A GPU is a dedicated processor optimized for accelerating
graphics.^Definition: An expansion card that interprets drawing instructions sent by the CPU, processes them via a dedicated graphics processor and writes the resulting frame data to the frame buffer.

^ATI Radeon Stream Technology ATI Radeon Stream technology is a set of advanced hardware and software technologies that enable AMD graphics processors (GPU), working in concert with the system’s central processor (CPU), to accelerate many applications beyond just graphics.

.The main attributes of the
GPU are the core clock frequency, which typically ranges
from 250 MHz to 4 GHz and the number of pipelines (vertex
and fragmentshaders), which translate a 3D image
characterized by vertices and lines into a 2D image formed by pixels.^The number of pixel pipelines (shaders) a given GPU has.

Video
BIOS

.The video BIOS or
firmware contains the
basic program, which is usually hidden, that governs the video
card's operations and provides the instructions that allow the
computer and software to interact with the card.^Computer video card drivers .

.It may contain
information on the memory timing, operating speeds and voltages of
the graphics processor, RAM, and other information.^It significantly improves the speed of the time-consuming demands of three dimensional graphic computations.

^The 260's stock core and RAM clock speeds are only marginally lower than the 280's, but it's got 192 stream processors to the 280's 240, 64 texture units to the 280's 80, and 28 raster operators to the 280's 32.

It is sometimes
possible to change the BIOS (e.g. to enable factory-locked settings
for higher performance), although this is typically only done by
video card overclockers and has the potential to irreversibly
damage the card.

Video
memory

.The memory capacity of most modern video cards ranges from 128
MB to 4 GB, though very few cards actually go over 1 GB.[8][9] Since
video memory needs to be accessed by the GPU and the display
circuitry, it often uses special high-speed or multi-port memory,
such as VRAM, WRAM, SGRAM, etc.^GeForce FX 5200 128 mb AGP Video Card .

.During and after that
year, manufacturers moved towards DDR2, GDDR3, GDDR4,
and even GDDR5 utilized most
notably by the ATI Radeon HD 4870. The effective memory clock rate
in modern cards is generally between 400 MHz and 3.8 GHz.^ATI Radeon HD 5870 .

.Video memory may be used for storing other data as well as the
screen image, such as the Z-buffer, which manages the depth
coordinates in 3D graphics, textures, vertex buffers, and compiled
shader programs.^Video display page A video screen image stored in the video buffer.

RAMDAC

.The RAMDAC, or Random
Access Memory Digital-to-Analog Converter, converts digital signals
to analog
signals for use by a computer display that uses analog inputs
such as CRT displays.^Error Message: Cycles of eight beeps when you try to power up the PC. This is called a "Display Memory Read/Write Failure" and can happen on systems that use the AMI/Award BIOS (Basic Input/Output System).

.Depending on the
number of bits used and the RAMDAC-data-transfer rate, the
converter will be able to support different computer-display
refresh rates.^Intensity bit Bit of information used to display different intensities of color with computer software and computer monitors.

.With CRT displays, it is best to work over 75 Hz and
never under 60 Hz, in order to minimize flicker.^The lowest advisable rate is usually 60Hz, although this works better for LCD (liquid-crystal display) screens than CRTs (cathode ray tubes).

) .Due to the growing
popularity of digital computer displays and the integration of the
RAMDAC onto the GPU die, it has mostly disappeared as a discrete
component.^Graphic A digitized version of photograph, or other type of picture that is displayed on a computer display.

.All current LCDs, plasma displays and TVs work in the
digital domain and do not require a RAMDAC. There are few remaining
legacy LCD and plasma displays that feature analog inputs (VGA,
component, SCART etc.^The PC ISA bus has been obsolete for a number of years, but there are many deployed systems which require these legacy cards.

)
only. .These require a RAMDAC, but they reconvert the
analog signal back to digital before they can display it, with the
unavoidable loss of quality stemming from this
digital-to-analog-to-digital conversion.^It contains a digital-to-analog module, as well as memory chips that store display data.

Video Graphics
Array (VGA) (DE-15)

.Analog-based standard adopted in the late 1980s designed for CRT displays,
also called VGA
connector.^Previous standards such as the analog VGA were designed for CRT-based devices and thus did not use discrete time display addressing.

.Some problems of this standard are electrical noise, image distortion and sampling error
evaluating pixels.^In this way, each pixel in the output buffer of the source device corresponds directly to one pixel in the display device, whereas with an analog signal the appearance of each pixel may be affected by its adjacent pixels as well as by electrical noise and other forms of analog distortion.

Digital Visual Interface
(DVI)

.Digital-based standard designed for displays such as flat-panel
displays (LCDs, plasma screens, wide high-definition television
displays) and video projectors.^DVI is a video interface standard designed to maximize the visual quality of digital display devices such as flat panel LCD computer displays and digital projectors.

^Video capture cards without tuners do exist, but these are not commonly used with MythTV. Sometimes people mistake video capture cards with video display cards which provide the output to the (tv)screen.

^In this way, each pixel in the output buffer of the source device corresponds directly to one pixel in the display device, whereas with an analog signal the appearance of each pixel may be affected by its adjacent pixels as well as by electrical noise and other forms of analog distortion.

.They often come
in two 9-pin Mini-DIN connector variations, and
the VIVO splitter cable generally comes with either 4 connectors
(S-Video in and out + composite video in and out), or 6 connectors
(S-Video in and out + component PB out + component
PR out + component Y out [also composite out] +
composite in).^This can either be S-video or composite video.

^You also get the proper suite of video connector stuff - one Y/C cable, one composite video cable, one adapter to convert the extra-pinned Y/C output to a composite RCA socket, and the sometimes-omitted-and-surprisingly-expensive DVI-to-VGA adapter that you'll need if you want to run two non-DVI monitors from the 9700 Pro's twin outputs.

.An advanced digital audio/video interconnect released in 2003
and is commonly used to connect game consoles and DVD
players to a display.^If they were recorded on a video recorder with an S-video output, I'd suggest using one of Canopus analog to digital converters.

.An advanced license- and royalty-free digital audio/video
interconnect released in 2007. DisplayPort intends to replace VGA
and DVI for connecting a display to a computer.^The Quadro FX1800 has 756 megabytes of onboard memory, two digital display outputs, and one DVI output, all in a PCI Express interface.

Other types of connection
systems

.Analog system with lower resolution; it uses the RCA connector.^Both systems were using a dual-link DVI output on a 30" monitor (one from Apple, one from Dell) and it occurred at both resolutions of 1920x1200 and 2560x1600.

.It has three cables, each with RCA connector (YCBCR); it is
used in projectors, DVD players and some televisions.^Capture regular windows screens, DirectX, Direct3D, 3dfx Glide Games (Voodoo series cards), and some video/DVD players.

.A connector that provides two DVI outputs on a single connector.^The PNY Quadro2 MXR includes multiple output options including a standard VGA connector and DVI-I for flat panel display and digital monitor compatibility.

^From man SuperProbe : "SuperProbe is a XFree86 3.x program that will attempt to determine the type of video hardware installed in an EISA/ISA/VLB-bus system by checking for known registers in various combinations at various locations (MicroChannel and PCI machines may not be fully supported; many work with the use of the -no_bios option)."

PCI-X: An extension of the
PCI bus, it was introduced in 1998. It improves upon PCI by
extending the width of bus to 64-bit and the clock frequency to up
to 133 MHz.

PCI Express:
Abbreviated PCIe, it is a point to point
interface released in 2004. In 2006 provided double the
data-transfer rate of AGP. It should not be confused with PCI-X, an enhanced version of the
original PCI specification.

.In the attached table[11] is a
comparison between a selection of the features of some of those
interfaces.^I was very interested in what the performance comparison between DirectX 10 and DirectX 11 would produce.

Cooling
devices

.Video cards may use a lot of electricity, which is converted
into heat.^If they were recorded on a video recorder with an S-video output, I'd suggest using one of Canopus analog to digital converters.

.If the heat isn't dissipated, the video card could
overheat and be damaged.^Alex on November 11, 2008 5:11 AM Alex, isn't the strategy there to buy used video cards from American eBay sellers who are willing to ship internationally?

About Using Two Graphics Cards31 January 2010 12:53 UTCwww.trap17.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

.It uses air (most common), or in extreme cooling
situations, water (see water block), to remove the heat from the
card.^The Air Force panel is used to overclock the card by simply touching the sensors on the panel.

It
is mounted on the graphics processor and has a hollow inside. .Water
is pumped through the water block, transferring the heat into the
water, which is then usually cooled in a radiator.^The fan then feeds into a tunnel of sorts that blows through the cooling fins of the video card, which is right over the area where you can see I drilled a bunch of holes.

This is the most
effective cooling solution without extreme modification.

Power
demand

.As the processing power of video cards has increased, so has
their demand for electrical power.^The video card processes all graphics related work (especially 3D) and delivers the resultant output to a connected display/monitor.

.While CPU and power supply makers
have recently moved toward higher efficiency, power demands of GPUs
have continued to rise, so the video card may be the biggest
electricity user in a computer.^I’m afraid that your power supply may not up to the task of powering your new video card.

Do you make these 6 mistakes when buying a video card? | Hardware Revolution2 February 2010 10:17 UTCwww.hardware-revolution.com [Source type: General]

Do you make these 6 mistakes when buying a video card? | Hardware Revolution2 February 2010 10:17 UTCwww.hardware-revolution.com [Source type: General]

[12][13].Although power supplies are increasing their power too, the
bottleneck is due to the PCI-Express connection, which is limited to
supplying 75 W.[14]
Nowadays, video cards with a power consumption over 75 watts
usually include a combination of six-pin (75W) or eight-pin (150W)
sockets that connect directly to the power supply to supplement
power.^PCI video card (sluggish and slow).

The English used in this article or section may not be easy for everybody to understand.You can help Wikipedia by making this page or section simpler.

In computing, a video card (also called a graphics card or a graphics accelerator) is a special circuit board that controls what is shown on a computer monitor and calculates 3D images and graphics.

A video card can handle two types of video images. First, they can be used to display a two-dimensional (2D) image like a Windows desktop, or a three-dimensional (3D) image like a computer game. Computer-Assisted Drawing (CAD) programs are often used by architects and designers to create 3D models on their computers. If a computer has a very fast video card, the architect can create very detailed 3D models.

Many computers have a basic video and graphics capabilities built-in to the computer's motherboard. These "onboard" video chips are not as fast as normal graphics cards. They are fast enough for basic computer use and even some basic computer games. If a computer user wants faster and more detailed graphics, a video card can be installed.

Video cards have their own processor (called a Graphics Processing Unit or GPU). The GPU separate from the main computer processor (called the Central Processing Unit or CPU). The CPU's job is to process all the calculations needed to make the computer function. The GPU's job is to handle 3D graphics calculations so the CPU does not have to. 3D graphics calculations take a lot of CPU power, so having a video card to handle the graphics calculations lets the CPU focus on other things like running computer programs.

Video cards also have their own memory, separate from the main computer memory. It is usually much faster than main computer memory, too. This helps the GPU do its graphics calculations even faster. Most video cards also allow more than one monitor to be plugged in at one time. This lets the computer user use more than one monitor at once. Graphics manufacturers nVidia and ATI have special technologies that allow two identical cards to be linked together in a single computer for much faster performance. nVidia calls their technology SLI and ATI calls their technology CrossFire. Some modern graphics cards can even process physics calculations to create even more realistic-looking 3D worlds.

Video cards typically connect to a motherboard using the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI), the Advanced Graphics Port (AGP) or the Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCI Express or PCI-E). PCI-E is the newest and fastest connection; most (if not all) new video cards and motherboards have this connection. Before PCI-E was used, AGP was the standard connection for video cards. Before AGP, video cards were designed for PCI (sometimes called "regular" PCI).

History

In early computing years, graphics processing was very basic and could be done by the CPU along with all the other processing. However, as computer games advanced and started using 3D graphics, the CPU had too much to do and CPU-makers could not keep up on making them faster. Eventually, video cards were invented to solve this problem. Video cards are designed to have their own processor called the Graphics Processing Unit or GPU. This lets the CPU do more work since it does not have to spend any time on advanced graphics calculations; it can simply pass these calculations off to the GPU to be done.

The first video cards connected to the motherboard via the ISA connection. The first popular none IBM video cards were manufactured by a companie called Hercules Computer Technology, Inc.Throughout the years, the importance of video cards has grown. As they evolved, a new connection standard was developed called Advanced Graphics Port (AGP). This was the first motherboard connection designed exclusively for video cards. It was much faster at transferring information between the video card and the rest of the computer. Eventually, the AGP connection became outdated, and a new connection, called PCI Express (PCI-E), became the standard for video cards. Most video cards manufactured today use PCI-E to connect to the motherboard.